Speaking with the St. Louis Beacon last night, Nieves says he has no hard feelings against Shawn Bell -- the alleged victim who filed a detailed police complaint against Nieves last month. Nieves, who won a GOP primary state Senate in August, hopes that Bell would now withdraw his civil case against him.As for Bell's allegation that Nieves had a gun on him the day he supposedly roughed him up inside his Senate campaign office, Nieves tells the Beacon that, yes, chances are good he did have a firearm on him that day -- though he didn't threaten Bell with the weapon.

"On any given day, 97 percent of the time, Brian Nieves is carrying a gun," said Nieves speaking in the third-person dialect common among cavemen. Nieves declined to answer whether or not he packs heat in the state Capitol. "That's none of your business," he told the reporter.